PubData Leuphana Repository: Overselling democracy-claiming legitimacy? The link between democratic pretention, notions of democracy and citizens' evaluations of regimes' democraticness

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.48548/pubdata-1485

Resource type	Journal Article
Title(s)	Overselling democracy-claiming legitimacy? The link between democratic pretention, notions of democracy and citizens' evaluations of regimes' democraticness
DOI	10.48548/pubdata-1485
Handle	20.500.14123/1559
Creator	Brunkert, Lennart Joe 0000-0002-8201-7089
Abstract	Many non-democratic countries anchor the word “democracy” in their national constitutions and everyday rhetoric, while ignoring the conceptual roots of democracy and its scholarly-defined procedural standards. This article argues that governments intentionally “oversell” democracy to their people, in order to exploit the legitimizing effect that the word embodies. This can, however, only succeed if the receiving side is susceptible to such claims to legitimacy. Accordingly, this study investigates how effective “overselling” attempts are in light of individuals' liberal vs. illiberal notions of democracy. Building on congruence theory, it juxtaposes the, at times blatant, “overselling” with individual-level notions of democracy and, thus, investigates whether governments' attempts to claim democratic-procedural legitimacy are contingent on citizens' understanding of the concept. Using multilevel moderation analyses, it shows that illiberal, authoritarian notions of democracy can convert “overselling” into positive evaluations of a regime, whereas prevailing liberal notions unmask “overselling” governments and create additional criticality. The conclusion argues that notions of democracy function as a filter, which matches true and false demand and supply of democracy. The findings help to understand why and how democratization movements can unfold and why some citizens see their country as democratic even though it is not.
Language	English
Keywords	Democracy; Regime; Legitimacy; Autocracy; Hybrid Regime
Year of publication in PubData	2024
Publishing type	Parallel publication
Publication version	Published version
Date issued	2022-08-09
Creation context	Research
Notes	This publication was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Leuphana University Lüneburg.
Published by	Medien- und Informationszentrum, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
Related resources	Relations of this publication Relations of this publication